The House
by Dancer.Dreamer.Writer
Summary: Noone ever goes up to the house... A One Direction - esque story.


The House

By Jenni Cullimore

I was walking to the corner to meet Harry. We were going to work on our history report. We'd been best friends for ages, but now I was falling for him. Falling hard. He was tall and slim with piercing green eyes & thick curly brown hair. All the girls fancied him. But no one had time for that any more. Not since Hannah disappeared. I warned her not go to the old mansion, she ignored me. She knew it was haunted, but she went regardless.

_Nat was late. I'd been waiting for ten minutes. She's my best friend. We're virtually inseparable, even now, always been Harry 'n' Natalie. She's tall and slender with blue eyes that gaze upon your face with an intent expression, when she was planning something, they'd glint mischievously. Her hair was shoulder length and chocolate brown. It frames her face perfectly. She was perfect. She broke down when Hannah disappeared. Hannah is our other best friend, along with Louis. We met that first day in Year 7, a whole 4 years ago now. _

When I saw Harry on the corner, I broke into a run. I knew I was late, but he knew me inside out, so it didn't really matter. I had some horrifying news for him.

"Hey. Sorry, I'm late." I said as I drew near.

"So you remembered me then?" he asked sarcastically

"Not exactly, remind, who are you again?" I joked "did you hear the news?"

"Other than that new hoodie Jack wills have designed? He said, semi seriously "then no"

"James has disappeared, along with Louis. They both went to the house." I reported

_When Natalie told me it hit a nerve. Louis was my best friend, like a brother that I'd never had. Nat looked really shaken._

"_It's my fault" I thought out loud."_

"_Don't be stupid harry. Why would it be your fault?" she asked me_

"_It just is!" I retorted_

"_Alright don't snap at me! Louis was my friend to you know!" she cried_

_Yeah, I know…Sorry" I said regretting shouting at her_

"_With Hannah gone, I feel like I'm cursed. All my closest friends have gone missing!" she started to sob_

"_Hey, I'm still here" I said, trying to comfort her as she burst into floods of tears_

"_You don't count, you're more like my brother!" she replied. _

_Right, so that's it then. We're basically family. No chance of her and me happening then._

Me and Harry dug into our picnic, and by that I mean chips from the chip shop down the track from where we were, under our tree, from which we could see the old mansion. We chatted, we messed around, but we didn't start our history project

" I feel like it's my fault, I should've stopped him!" I said looking down at my feet.

" It's not your fault, it's mine! He's like a brother to me, I should've been with him!" cried harry

With that he swept me into a hug, I didn't realise how dark it had gotten.

"We'd better get going. It's getting dark" I told him

"Yeah, come on let g.." Harry began

"Harry what's wrong?" I asked, scared. He pointed to the shadows of the forest in front of us. All I saw was the silhouette of a… a… Thing.

_Natalie and I stood there._

"_Run" she whispered in my ear_

"_Way ahead of you" I whispered back_

_We ran as fast as we could go. We turned into Tavern Street. The figure was behind us, Nat was keeping pace, but I knew she could go faster. Moments later I felt a searing pain in my arm. It was like my arm was being drenched in acid, and then slashed a million times with the blade of knife. I turned to look at Nat, who wasn't even breaking a sweat._

"_Oh My Goodness, Harry, your arm!" she shrieked_

"_Never mind my arm, Nat , look at your leg!" I yelled back_

_We stopped_

My leg was drenched in blood. WE were in The Crown Car Park, standing in the pool of light from the floodlights. It was gone. Whatever it was, it was gone.

"What have we here then, hmmm?" PC Barnaby asked

"We were chased officer, and this is where we ended up." Harry explained

"By?" PC Barnaby enquired

"I don't know"

"You need to get to the hospital.. You've been injured badly. Come on, in you get." He said, gesturing to the police cruiser.

It was a short journey to the hospital, where I met my mother. I had a hard time convincing her that my police car ride was no reason to hyperventilate. In the end I needed ten stitches. Excellent. That would leave a brilliant scar.

_My arm was killing me. I needed 13 stitches along the 13cm gash in my arm. At least Natalie was ok though. Next day she came to mine, again, we didn't make any progress on our report. Instead we talked about our eventful night last night._

"_We have to get to the house. We have to know what's going on, if we figure it out, we could maybe stop other people disappearing." Nat said, gazing intently into my eyes._

"_Yeah.. g..good plan" I stuttered. Idiot_

"_Good. Glad that you agree. Let's go."_

"_What now?"_

"_Yes now! Come on then!"_

Me and Harry made our way to the mansion, which reminded me of Frank n Furter's mansion in the Rocky Horror Picture Show . I glanced at him as we pushed open the wooden door. All to soon we were standing in a room. It was like a mad professors laboratory. When did my life become a horror film? It felt like I was in the Phantom of the Opera at the moment. I prayed that this would be a fairly normal mansion, but like everything else, I was wrong. My knees buckled an dnerly fell over. Harry caught me.

"Let's get upstairs" Harry suggested

"Good ide-" I stopped, unable to finish. "HANNAH!"

"Yes, she's been here, but she isn't anymore" said Harry, thinking I was going crazy.

"NO LOOK!" I cried, pointing over at a bench.

"_Oh my days, HANNAH!" I yelled, feeling like an idiot._

"_Yeah, I'm still normal. Ish" Nat laughed. She ran over to the bench, where Hannah was lying motionlessly ._

"_Him. Him. Him. Him." she chanted, her voice barely audible. _

_We ran upstairs, and through the nearest door. I heard the lock click shut behind me. I knew that we weren't getting out of here anytime soon. The room which we were standing in looked a lot like an operating theatre._

I heard a laugh behind me. It was sinister and fear inducing. I whipped round; it was there, lurking in the shadows. As it emerged, I found that it was a he, not an it. In a heartbeat, I realised who it was. James. James, the lovesick physco, who was allegedly being treated in St. Clements Mental Hospital. He was a stalker. He tried to start an appreciation society and a shrine. But it didn't work.

"Why?" I asked, in an almost silent whisper.

"I figured, if I took everyone you loved, then you'd need someone to help you through it, which would be me. "

"She has me for that" Harry retorted.

"But that only make me suspect you." I stated. " Where's Louis?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out."

"What have you done?" I demanded

"Nothing. Yet." James replied, with an evil glint in his eye.

"Where is he?" I demanded once again

I heard a knock on some glass. Louis!

He was in a side room, with a window. We could see what he'd been subjected to. A life in the dark, as the window was covered with a thick black sheet. I could see that he'd been going without food or water. He had slashes all up his arms, and his eye was framed with a large purple bruise.

_I was horrified at the sight of Louis. His black distorted his face. I made a lunge for James. If Natalie hadn't stopped me, he would've been killed. Right there, right then. I scanned the room for something to break the sheet of glass of the window in the gap in the wall, btu there was nothing._

"_You won't get him out, unless you give one thing." James said, seeing that I was trying to find a way to set Louis free._

"_What do you want?" Natalie asked_

"_You. You leave Harry and be my friend again. Natalie, please._

"_I'll do it."_

"_Natalie, think of what you're doing" I told her, tears brimming in my eyes._

"_Harry, you and Louis are my best friends, I'd do anything for you, you know that!" she cried _

I regretted my decision . At least if I went with him I could leave.

"Harry. I have a plan." James had let us say goodbye, but this goodbye was only temporary.

"Tell me."

"You get Louis out, I'll distract James, we get Hannah, and make a run for it. You up for it?" I explained.

"James" I called in a fake happy voice.

"Yes?" he gazed at me with a soppy grin on his face.

"Come with me."

And with that we swept out of the room. I turned to Harry, he was already searching for something to get Louis out.

_As I smashed the glass with the metal rod I was holding, Louis scrambled out._

"_Right we need to get to Natalie. We sped across the hall, there was 3 other doors along the corridor. Great. I kicked open the first one and they weren't in there, Louis took the next door. Another no show. That left the door at the end. We burst through it. Only James was standing there. A puzzled look on his face. THIs changed t a look of poison. Aimed at me. _

"_She ran" James said, he made a lunge for me. I ran back through the door. Louis slammed it shut, and locked it. As we made our way downstairs ,we heard a yell._

Hannah was mad. Mad at me, because I'd woken her from her so called slumber. She advanced towards me and I had nowhere to run. I tried yelling, but the boys hadn't heard me. She had my back up against a wall. I sank to the floor as she came at me. I felt a pair of hands pulling me up, I looked up to see Louis pinning Hannah to the floor and Harry above me. Louis tried to bring Hannah back to reality. In the end all they had to do was pour a bucket of water over her.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? MY HAIR IS RUINED!" Hannah yelled.

"Guys, we need to get out, James is coming"

"What makes you say that?" Louis asked me.

"_I can hear footsteps coming down the stairs." Natalie replied to Louis awkward question._

"_Oh"_

_In one swift movement, I was out the door. The guys were behind me, we started running. Once we were back in the park, we saw the sun coming behind the hill. We were in deep trouble._

I didn't get home till 3 in the morning. My mum was not best pleased. Once I'd explained my story to her, she called the police. All 4 of us were expected at the station at nine later that morning to give our statements.

"Right love, why don't you tell me what happened?" asked a police officer in a patronising tone.

As I finished my account for what happened. I saw James being brought in in handcuffs. No surprise there then.

_Me and Natalie were in the police waiting room, waiting for Hannah and Louis. Louis poked his round the door, and told us that we could go home if we didn't want to wait. I took that opportunity. We walked back to mine to get everything ready. Now that James was out of the way for good, I couldn't have been happier._

We were going to work on our history report. Just me and harry. James was gone for good, so we wouldn't be bothered by him again. Going through all that made mine and Harry's friendship stronger. But I can't help thinking that it could be more someday…


End file.
